Twitter banned Trump from the platform specifically for how his tweets were "being received and interpreted on and off Twitter." Yet, all three cable networks continued to show Trump's tweets on screen.
Last year, the total airtime for his tweets was 1,924 minutes, or 32 hours. MSNBC accounted for 710 minutes, or nearly twelve hours. CNN came in second with 632 minutes, or ten-and-a-half hours. Fox contented itself with a mere 582 minutes, just under ten hours.
In my latest for CJR, find out exactly how many hours cable news aired disinformation about the election. Producers may defend the practice but it has continued beyond the inauguration and the effects are yet to be fully understood. I argue the networks should focus more on what people do rather than on what they say. And they should ignore blatant lies rather than impanel some talking heads to discuss them endlessly.
Read more here in my latest for CJR:
Yes, we all know that the American media outlets - especially the main stream outlets like ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, and NBC are all cesspools of disinformation. It doesn't help at all, that people like Ariana Pekary (no offense Ariana) and other so-called independent writers are constantly writing about how dishonest American media is these days. When did the talking heads ever give the American people real news? All they ever do is give us their personal opinions of the news. The country is lost. And it is lost because we, the American people, have killed America. How? By convincing ourselves that all of this plenty, that we have been drowning in for years, and at the same time …
Very interesting article! Well done! Too many forget the distinction between free market enterprises that can do and say almost anything they want, and public platforms. As it should be, public speech and false reporting can have major impacts, whether it by Nick Sandman, Sydney Powell, or Jussie Smollett. The lesson learned for me in all of this is Twitter is not to be trusted, when they pull down POTUS an keep up the Supreme Leader of Iran. I've also seen Amazon breach their contract with Parler, so I haven't purchased a thing on Amazon since. And I'll start my search for video on Rumble or Vimeo before turning to Youtube. I've deleted my work and personal accounts on …